The Prime Minister says the return to economic growth is imminent

he Prime Minister presented the government’s annual report on the Spanish economy this Thursday, saying the return to economic growth is imminent. His comments came the day after the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s warned that they could reduce their classification for the Spanish public debt, but José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero spoke of the ‘train of growth’ as being very close, and said, if all the reforms in place are applied, it will reach the speed it needs to once again create employment.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has warned it could reduce the rating for Spain’s public debt

The ratings agency Standard and Poor’s have warned that they could reduce their classification for the Spanish public debt in the over the next two years.

Trichet – ‘There are not two Euros, one for Spain and one for the rest of the Eurozone’

Those with a 45 percent disability will be able to retire at 58

The Spanish cabinet has decided, by Royal Decree, to bring forward the retirement age for the seriously disabled whose life expectancy is lower than that of the general population.

Record numbers of people have seen their pay frozen or cut as firms fight the recession and stave off redundancies, according to internal Treasury figures.

Others have voluntarily moved to part-time positions rather than lose their jobs, with official statistics showing a record one million people who want to work full time are now unable to secure anything other than reduced hours work.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is to start withdrawing some of its special measures to support the economy.

The bank is withdrawing some of its cheap short-term loans designed to boost the amount of money available in the markets and encourage bank lending.

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said he had asked the banks “to do their job. We have helped them considerably.”

Two more regional Spanish savings banks, Unicaja and Cajasur, said on Tuesday they had agreed to merge as the pace of consolidation in the sector gathers pace due to a recession which has fuelled bad loans.

The two banks, based in the southwestern region of Andalusia, reached the deal late on Monday, they said in a statement sent to Spanish stock market regulator CNMV.

The increase is an improvement on the same month last year

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, speaking to Congress on Wednesday has admitted that ‘We cannot continue with a breach of unemployment which is so high’.

He made the comment as he was presenting the new Government’s plans under the new Sustainable Economy Law, which intends to change the productive model of the Spanish economy, and also announced a new package of measures which will come into effect in this legislature.

Prices showing signs of increasing again

The average shopping basket fell in price by 4% over this year, but the numbers show that prices had started to rise again in the last quarter, where an increase of 0.8% has been noted.
The latest data from the Ministry for Industry’s Price Observatory shows Huelva to be the cheapest city in Spain and Pamplona to be the most expensive. It also indicates that Mercadona and Carrefour are the cheapest places to shop, while El Corte Inglés, Hipercor and Supercor are the most expensive. The observatory checks 187 products in 4,124 establishments in 56 of the largest cities in Spain.
A similar increase in recent prices has also been noted across the Eurozone.

The eurozone has seen consumer prices rise for the first time in seven months, official figures have shown.

Prices rose by 0.6% in the 12 months to November, the European Union’s Eurostat agency said.

That marks a turnaround after five straight months of falling prices in the 16 countries that use the euro.

A positive inflation figure was widely expected by economists, following the eurozone’s emergence from recession earlier this month.

Dubai is bracing itself for more fallout from its financial crisis when the Middle Eastern markets reopen on Monday.

The Emirate’s move to ask for a six-month standstill on its £36bn debt was made at the start of the Eid holidays. Since then all public offices have been closed.

Many of the expatriates living in Dubai are being forced to re-evaluate their dream of living in the land of opportunity.

The leading marketer of fruit and vegetables in the Mediterranean is launching a new platform for vegetables: a joint project of integration in the production and marketing of produce. Initially involved in this new platform implementation phase are three members of Anecoop in Almeria, CAMPOSOL, COPROHNIJAR and HORTAMAR.

With this initiative, the Platform intends to improve its business performance and profitability of the farms of their cooperative partners in the Almeria region, expand its customer base, give greater visibility to their brands, have better utilization and involvement of its subsidiaries and achieve better sales prices.

Two Spanish savings banks, Caixa Penedes and Caixa Laietana, said Wednesday they had agreed to merge, creating the country’s ninth-largest savings bank by assets.

The tie-up of the two Catalan institutions will create a savings bank with over EUR 32 billion in assets, over 900 offices and a staff of around 4,000, the two said in a statement.

Last week, Bank of Spain governor Miguel Fernandez Ordonez said he would like to see a third of the country’s 45 savings banks quickly absorbed by stronger institutions.

Spain’s current account deficit halved during the first nine months of the year when compared to the same time last year as imports plunged in the midst of a steep recession, the government said Tuesday.

It reached EUR 37.3 billion at the end of September, down 49.9 percent from the year-ago period as imports dropped 30 percent while exports fell 19.8 percent, the industry ministry said.

Zapatero addresses The Economist Magazine Forum in Madrid

Eurozone economic activity rose at its fastest pace in November for two years, according to an influential survey.

The latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) figure rose to 53.7, up from 53 in the previous month, confirming the bloc’s recent economic recovery.

The growth was driven by manufacturing output, which scored 54.6, its fastest growth since September 2007.

Figures released earlier this month showed that the eurozone emerged from recession between July and September.

German authorities have recalled more than 100,000 credit cards over fears that crooks may have obtained details of the cards via an unnamed Spanish payment processing firm.

Holidaymakers who used their Visa or Mastercard credit card in Spain may be at risk of fraud following the reported security breach, which prompted the largest plastic card recall in German history. The Volks and Raiffeisenbank banking group alone recalled 60,000 potentially compromised credit cards as a precautionary measure, AFP reports.

The pace of Spain’s economic contraction eased in the third quarter as a deterioration in domestic demand slowed, official data showed on Wednesday, contrasting with a return to growth in the rest of the eurozone during the period.

Spanish gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent from a quarter earlier, its fifth straight quarterly decline, and was down 4.0 percent from a year earlier, according to final figures from the national statistics institute.

The 16 countries that use the euro posted an unexpected trade surplus in September, official figures have shown.

The eurozone recorded a 3.7bn-euro (£3.3bn) trade surplus, Eurostat said. Analysts had been expecting a deficit of 2bn euros.

A sharp rise in exports contributed to the surplus. On a seasonally-adjusted basis, exports rose 5.5% on August.

Earlier this week, the eurozone emerged from recession after its economy grew by 0.4% in the third quarter.

A key measure of UK inflation has risen for the first time since February, official figures have shown.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) climbed to 1.5% in October, up from 1.1% in September.

Meanwhile the Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation measure, which includes mortgage interest payments and housing costs, rose to -0.8% from -1.4%.

Inflation accelerated mainly because fuel prices fell by a lot less than they did in the same period a year ago.